The field of the present disclosure generally relates to processing items at a retail checkout or other point of handling station. In the retail checkout or point of sale (POS) location, for example, objects selected by a customer for purchase are currently transacted for checkout by a customer operating a scanner at a self-checkout station or by a cashier scanning the selected objects using an optical scanner to identify and read optical codes on the objects. The information from the optical codes is processed by a computer system to look up price information in a point of sale (“POS”) system. A significant amount of time for current checkout processing results from the customer or the cashier grasping an object, orienting the object to present an optical code to a scanner, moving the object past the scanner's operative field, then bagging the object. The physical stress from moving objects past the scanner, which often requires rescanning, may increase the potential for repetitive motion injuries.
Various systems attempt to reduce object handling and the time it takes to transact items for purchase. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,939,355; 5,497,314; 5,543,607; 5,609,223; 5,679,941; and 6,213,397 are directed to checkout systems that use a tunnel containing various items such as a height measuring apparatus, a camera, and/or a scanner. Items are sent through the tunnels of the various systems, and are processed one-by-one as the items pass through the tunnels. Item-by-item processing is not particularly fast or efficient, and the physical size of the tunnels limits what objects may be processed.
Other systems, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,745, rely on machine or human recognition of objects. The system in U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,745 uses visual sensors to capture images of products, recognizes the products by analyzing the images with techniques such as the scale invariant feature transformation method, assesses the reliability of the recognition, and performs an action such as adding a product to a list if the reliability of the recognition exceeds a predetermined threshold. However, if the system does not recognize an item, the system requests the operator to identify the object and to provide information regarding the object using an input device, such as a scanner.
The present inventors have recognized disadvantages with existing systems for transacting items presented for purchase. Such disadvantages may include relatively large time requirements for grasping, orienting, and scanning items; potential for fatigue and injury to cashiers; tunnels that limit what objects can be processed; using complex and expensive equipment; incompatibility with existing checkout systems; reliance on machine or human identification of products instead of using human assisted machine identifications; and relatively inflexible use that does not readily permit a customer to remove an object once a machine system processes the object.